Why The Simpsons' Original Pilot Was Replaced With A Christmas Special
Season 1 of "The Simpsons" is a whole different beast. You've got brown Mr. Smithers, character designs out of a Dr. Seuss book, and Homer inexplicably sounding like Walter Matthau. It's a charming affair, but it also hasn't yet turned into "The Simpsons" we've come to know and love.
What complicates the first season even more is the way that Fox aired certain episodes out of order. This was famously a much bigger problem with the classic era of "Futurama," but it also led to some inconsistencies in early "Simpsons." While the animation, character designs, and voices were all slowly evolving in the right direction throughout the first three seasons, the out-of-order episodes meant the show would sometimes take a seemingly random, large step back in animation quality. A case in point was the season 1 finale, "Some Enchanted Evening," which inexplicably looked closer to the old bumpers on "The Tracey Ullman Show" than the 12 episodes that came before it.
This was because "Some Enchanted Evening" was actually the first real episode of the season, not the last. As "Simpsons" writer and producer Mike Reiss wrote in his 2018 book "Springfield Confidential," this was the show's "first finished, full-color episode" and centered mostly around Bart and Lisa being terrorized by their babysitter, voiced by Penny Marshall. Reiss described the outing as "a total disaster," not just for the script but because of the animation style:
"The animation felt completely wrong: the Simpson house was bendy, Homer was wiggly, all of Springfield seemed to be made of rubber."
While the animation was improved and reworked with the extra time allotted by the episode's rescheduling, that still didn't save it from looking like one of the strangest episodes in the entire series.
To be fair to the animation...
While the animation in this episode looks undeniably low-budget and not in line with the rest of the show, it's also full of life and personality. The babysitter often makes extremely exaggerated and cartoonish facial expressions, but this helps to sell her as an unsettling villain for Bart and Lisa to battle against. It also establishes that this storyline isn't aiming for realism, which is key to selling some of the more absurd plot points (even by "Simpsons" standards). This burglary storyline is inherently sort of terrifying, so it honestly might not have worked as well if it'd been done with the animation style from later seasons.
What makes the animation even easier to appreciate is the knowledge of just how much the show's overcorrected in recent seasons. After "The Simpsons" transitioned to HD in the late 2000s, it technically looked as clean as ever, but it lost a lot of its personality. If Ms. Botz had given that same threatening speech to Bart in season 30, she probably would've barely moved her face at all. In season 1, meanwhile, you can tell that a ton of thought and effort went into every single frame of every single scene. It doesn't always look great, but it still creates a far more immersive, charming viewing experience.
But even without the complaints over the animation, it's still clear that "Some Enchanted Evening" would not have made a great first episode. It's simply not in keeping with the more down-to-earth vibes of season 1, where money issues regularly plague the Simpson family and barely anything happens that couldn't also take place in a live-action series. So for the show's new pilot, which aired the week before Christmas in 1989, the show would have to go with something different.
Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire
The Christmas episode (listed ninth of the season in production order) still looks remarkably cheap to modern viewers, but the main storylines are still far more in line with the tone of the early seasons. It features Mr. Burns pretty prominently (he was easily the most important character outside the Simpson family throughout the classic era), and Bart's subplot of getting a misguided tattoo was a more accurate indication of the sort of hijinks he'd usually get up to. The episode was also less cynical than "Some Enchanted Evening," ending on a heartwarming note of Homer getting the family a dog rather than Homer making a clown of himself by accidentally helping Ms. Boz escape.
"It was funny, touching, smart, and sweet; none of us saw it coming," Reiss explained. The episode got huge ratings and strong positive reviews from critics, a stark contrast from the baffled, outraged reaction the original pilot received from early screenings. As Reiss recalled:
"When the screening ended there was dead silence. The small audience in attendance gaped at the screen like it was the first act of 'Springtime for Hitler.' Someone had to break the silence. Finally, writer Wally Wolodarsky shouted with ironic glee, 'Show it again!'"
35 years later, we can't help but wonder: what if the show hadn't moved the episodes around? If the evil babysitter escapade was America's first proper introduction to the series, would it have still gone on to become such a massive phenomenon? We like to think the answer's yes, but one should never underestimate the value of a good first impression. Instead, "The Simpsons" chose to start off on a sweet, down-to-earth note, and there's no denying the decision paid off.